The present invention relates to a female connector and a card edge connector connected to a card member having card edge terminals formed on an end portion of a substrate and particularly to a female connector and a card edge connector connected to a card member having different numbers of contacting terminals between a mounting surface side of a substrate and an opposite side thereof.
A so-called card edge substrate is known that has card edge terminals formed on an end portion of the substrate for directly connecting the substrate and a connector when the substrate with printed electronic circuits etc., is connected to an electronic device etc., and a so-called card edge connector is also known that is formed by combining this card edge substrate etc., with a counterpart female connector.
With regard to card edge connectors, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-176625, a card edge connector is known that is arranged with multiple rows of card edge terminals formed on a substrate for narrowing the width of the substrate and that is disposed with multiple stages of contacts of the connector connected to the card edge terminals for the purpose of reduction in size of the connector.
The card edge connector disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-176625 is a card edge connector making electric connection through insertion of an end portion of an electronic substrate between a plurality of contact terminals formed along the insertion direction of the electronic substrate on the same plane of an electronic substrate end portion and a harness drawn to the outside, the card edge connector including a housing having an electric substrate insertion hole in which the end portion of the electric substrate is inserted, first and second contact conductors arranged in the electric substrate insertion hole in the housing and respectively coming into contact with leading contact terminals located at the head of the insertion direction and inner contact terminals located on the inner side of the substrate as compared to the leading contact terminals when the end portion of the electric substrate is inserted, an auxiliary contact conductor disposed in the housing at a height position more away from the surface of the electric substrate than the first contact conductor in the direction perpendicular to a plane on which the plurality of the contact terminals of the electric substrate is formed, and a coupling conductor disposed in the housing and having one end connected to the second contact conductor and the other end in contact with the auxiliary contact conductor, and the harness is connected to the first contact conductor and the auxiliary contact conductor.
With such a configuration of the card edge connector disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-176625, even if the leading contact terminals and the inner contact terminals are formed along the insertion direction of the electric substrate, the first contact conductor and the auxiliary contact conductor electrically connected to the respective terminals can be disposed on multiple stages at a sufficient interval in the direction perpendicular to the electric substrate surface.
The card edge connector is used in various applications and is used in, for example, an electronic control device of an automobile etc. The electronic control device is provided with power circuits allowing the electronic control device to operate and signal circuits inputting and outputting signals. Although having different electric ratings, the power circuits and the signal circuits are arranged on a substrate in a mixed manner. Since the power circuits generate heat due to energization, the absence of efficient cooling may cause a trouble in another signal circuit or electric components mounted on the substrate.
It is thus contemplated that the signal circuits and the power circuits arranged on the substrate are separately arranged on a top surface and a back surface of the substrate to dispose a cooling member on the side disposed with the power circuits. As a result of such an arrangement, since the signal circuits become dense and has a larger number of card edge terminals as compared to the power circuits, a difference is generated between the numbers of the card edge terminals formed on the top surface and the back surface of the substrate.
If the signal circuits and the power circuits arranged on the substrate are separately arranged on the top surface and the back surface of the substrate, since the contacts to be connected to the card edge terminals are disposed symmetrically relative to the substrate in the card edge connector disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-176625, contacts and a space provided with the contacts are wasted on either one side. Since the substrate is located at the center of the housing, efficient cooling may become difficult because of obstacles such as cooling members disposed on the power circuit sides of one and the other sides.